


To The Last

by Measured



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, Community: springkink, F/F, Femslash, Hurt/Comfort, International Day of Femslash, Love Confessions, Near Death Experience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The risk was too great to stay silent for another moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To The Last

**Author's Note:**

> springkink: 30, Fire Emblem, Elincia/Lucia; love confession on the battlefield - The risk is too great to stay silent for another moment / HC bingo: confession in a desperate situation.
> 
> Filled in honor of Julz, she seemed to need some Elincia/Lucia~ Oh, and part of International Day Of Femslash celebration.

Lucia kept herself focused amidst the chaos around her. Unbeknownst to them, a fraction of Lekain's army had split to cut their flank. Ike and his side of the army had held off their side, but their half had run into a number of reinforcements which had momentarily overwhelmed them. The Crimean knights lead the charge, and were surely turning the course of the battle.

She had not strayed far from Elincia's side, not when they were so close to the end. She had already been wrested from death's clutches once; she did not want to take unnecessary chances.

It had only been a moment away, an enemy trueblade which had distracted her in the heat of battle. The trueblade was a poor fight, unskilled and young, but she did not let pity sway her as she struck for the killing blow.

In that time, an archer had crept up, taken an arrow from their quill and fired. It was only the cry, and the neigh of Elincia's pegasus that drew her attention. Lucia watched in horror as Elincia crashed to the ground.

_"Elincia!"_

The arrow stuck out of her side, blood seeping from the edge of the wound. Her legs were twisted at an unnatural angle beneath her, and her hand reaching out for the reins of her pegasus. If she pulled out the arrow, the wound would worsen, and Lucia was afraid it had hit a vital part of the body. If left inside, she would die. If pulled away, she would die.

"Lu...cia."

"Save your strength," Lucia said. She bent over Elincia, unsure what to do first. She had no more of the vulnerary she had packed, as she had foolishly used it on a deep cut in her forearm when she'd been flanked by an axe knight earlier in the battle. Blood dripped from the side of Elincia's delicate mouth. She had always loved her mouth, wanted to kiss it so many times, to pull her by the collar down and kiss until they were red and swollen.

"Just hold on, one of the clerics will come," Lucia said desperately. She looked around, none of their soldiers were near.

_"We need a cleric here!"_ Lucia yelled with a voice which would set any cadet to trembling. But no one was near enough, no one was coming. If she left to find a cleric, Elincia might be finished off by the enemy, or die alone in agony on the cold, cold earth. If she didn't leave, Elinca would die. The choices spread out before her, each leading to a seemingly unavoidable end.

"It's...too late," Elincia said. She coughed, and a thin stream of blood came out. 

No. This couldn't happen. She couldn't have let down her queen like this. Lucia had pledged her life to protect her. Geoffrey would forgive her eventually, but she'd never forgive herself and her own fallibility.

"You can't leave us just yet, my queen. We need you— _I_ need you," Lucia said. She clutched tight to Elincia's hand, as if she could wrest Elincia straight from the grip of death.

The risk was too great to stay silent for another moment. "You mean so much to me, I can't imagine a world without you in it."

"Lucia..." Elincia coughed again.

"You have to fight it, you have to live..." Lucia's voice trailed off. She stroke Elincia's pale cheek, marred by dirt and blood. She seemed too pale, too fragile.

"Lucia, you–" Elincia broke off into a coughing fit, more violent than the last. She struggled for breath, a hoarse gasping that cut Lucia to the core.

"Elincia? Elincia!"

Her eyes were half closed, and each breath seemed harder than the last. Nothing she did could do a damn thing. Lucia clutched Elincia's hand tighter. She had never felt so powerless, not even when she was at the gallows awaiting her own execution.

But there was no death rattle, no last breath. A white light surrounded her. A miracle? But the goddess had proved herself anything but benevolent, and the goddess imprisoned within the medallion was not close enough, and perhaps, could not even heal.

The wound was closing. It wasn't in deep enough to push through, so Lucia took a steadying breath and yanked it out. Elincia only let out the faintest of cries as the skin closed where the arrow had once been.

"Please help me—help me move my leg," Elincia said.

Lucia helped her up, and shuddered as Elincia bent to push the bone back into place. Elincia flinched as the final crack of bone resettling, and Lucia held her hand tight.

Lucia shook her head. "You're healed....You're alive," Lucia said, barely able to believe the turn of fortune. "I saw no one near."

Elincia closed her eyes. "There is a staff that heals from afar....I cannot recall its name, but it is difficult to use. Only the most skilled clerics, bishops and sages can use it."

Lucia wrapped her arms about her, holding her tight against her.

Elincia was still alive, still here with her for a little longer. They had cheated death, somehow.

"How do you feel?" Lucia said.

"Sore, but alive. Help me up, please," Elincia said.

"Careful you don't fall—"

She was not expecting the feel of the kiss, so warm and yet demanding as Elincia clutched tight to her collar. In all her dreams, she was the one to initiate it, not Elincia. Explosions of magic and the cries of the wounded sounded around them, but that moment was theirs, uninterrupted by the chaos of battle.

She broke away reluctantly, her arms still wrapped tight about Elincia, and yet knowing.

"Elincia...." 

"That's what I was trying to say then, before the pain started and I couldn't breathe," Elincia said. "In not so many words, but the meaning was the same."

"Come this way, we should avoid the worst of the battlefield until you're fully healed."

Elincia let out a whistle. She stood still, waiting, and finally there was the nicker, the sound of wings.

"Oh, I'm so glad she's unhurt," Elincia said.

They went near to the small grove of trees, the pegasus following behind them. Elincia held a loose grip on her mount's reins.

"We must rejoin them soon, but a moment to catch our breaths would be good," Elincia said.

"You nearly _died,_ retreating to the back lines of the conflict for a while would not lessen the morale of your soldiers."

"I don't retreat unless I utterly have to," Elincia said. She stepped under the shade of the trees.

She was different from the girl Lucia had grown up with. Stronger, more beautiful in a harsh cut way. Tragedy had turned her into this, not a girl, but a queen.

But it hadn't been the first war, no, it was more recent. Her capture? Perhaps that was it.

Not three steps away from them, an archer lay dead. There were no scorch marks, yet neither were there any wounds made by sword, axe, spear, claws or arrow.

"A bishop or magician, I'd say," Elincia said. "Wind, light or dark leave less visible marks at first, depending on the skill of the magician."

"Whoever they are, I owe them a debt of my life, for they have saved what is most important to me," Lucia said.

"Oh, Lucia...." Elincia said. "Take heart, I'm still here, and I will not give up so easily."

Had there ever been a queen as strong and lovely as her? Lucia thought not, but then, she was terribly biased in this respect. She embraced Elincia again just to feel the life of her, a comfort of knowing she still lived. The second kiss was just as sweet as the first. She promised herself that she would not fail her queen again.


End file.
